NHK, BBC work together to broadcast Olympics in ‘Super Hi-Vision’

The final preparations are coming together for the broadcast of the 2012 Olympics Games in ‘Super Hi-Vision,’ a project that was made possible in cooperation with the U.K.’s BBC, and Japan’s NHK, the country’s national public broadcaster, as well as participation from the Olympic Broadcasting Service. Super Hi-Vision will allow viewers to watch this year’s London Games in a picture resolution that is 16 times higher than regular HD quality. The broadcasts will be shown at special venues, requiring advance ticket purchases, and will run from July 23rd, two days before the first event, through the closing ceremony on August 12th.

With three theater venues set up in the U.K., two in Japan, and one more in the U.S., the screens have been designed to display the world’s national teams in a resolution of 7680 by 4320. Audio will be pumped out by massive speaker rigs that provide 22.2 multichannel sound. The opening and closing ceremonies, along with certain key events, will be broadcast live, while other viewings will show highlight packages, giving users some choices in which sporting events to see.

With the technology having been developed in Japan, this year’s Olympics will mark the first time it will be used at such a large scale. The BBC has received the Super Hi-Vision cameras and special microphones from Japan, and has been shooting footage of various landmarks in London to get preview footage and prepare for the big events next week. Tim Plyming, one of the BBC executives in charge of the project, says that these broadcasts will give viewers the ability to feel like they are really present at the events in a way never before thought possible. While the ticket pricing has yet to be finalized, with such new technology making its debut, I wonder if it just might be cheaper in the end to try getting into the Olympics themselves and just watching the real thing.

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